We had a fabulous evening last night at St Paul’s Actor’s Church, Covent Garden, for our annual Christmas Concert. We were entertained once again by the magical Holst Singers. The concert was sold out and the audience interaction almost brought the house down with popular renditions of ‘Hark! the Herald Angels Sing’ and ‘Once in Royal David’s City’.

Thank you to BBC Radio presenters, Nigel Rees and Charlotte Green who amused us with hilarious Christmas readings.

Thanks also to the fabulous volunteers who worked tirelessly to make the event go smoothly and to Pharma Profile who sponsored the concert.

But a very special thank you goes to Jane Walker who organised the concert and, if you look closely, you can see her singing along with the choir on one of the photos below!

Dr Manuela Plate: Can we use circulating DNA to tell us about genetic changes in the lung?

Dr Wes Wellard: Finding new genetic mutations in patients with IPF.

Dr Jagdeep Sahota: The role of mucins in IPF.

After lunch, the focus group discussed future areas of research into interstitial lung disease.

The scientists loved meeting you and one scientist said that meeting you helped ‘motivate us to do more and do it better and quicker’.

At the Bronchiectasis Evening, Professor Brown explained what we know about bronchiectasis and what we still need to find out. And, importantly, how Breathing Matters can help. This was followed by a lively Q+A session when Professor Brown answered some in-depth questions on the treatment of the disease.

We were also treated to Jane Walker’s personal and touching account of coping with her condition. Jane organises our annual Christmas Concert and we were lucky to have one of the Holst Singers along with a representative from Pharma Profile who has given a donation towards the costs of staging this concert, with us that evening.

It was so lovely to meet so many of you in person and we look forward to seeing many of you at our Christmas Concert at St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden on Friday, 8th December 2017.

These meetings show how Breathing Matters have helped research into both lung diseases since our inception in 2011, and it is thanks to all our fundraisers and donors that this has been achieved.

Patients attending Professor Brown’s clinics who have bronchiectasis are now being recruited for a Medical Research Council funded study into bronchiectasis called Bronch UK. This is the first study funded by the Medical Research Council into bronchiectasis for many years, and involves nine different centres across the United Kingdom including UCLH. The aim of the study is to describe the spectrum of disease caused by bronchiectasis, including the underlying causes, how severe the disease is and how it actually affects the patients’ quality of life.

In addition, the Bronch UK study has created a network of hospitals ready to do other research into bronchiectasis; for example, the Bronch UK network was used to obtain funding from the Health Technology Assessment scheme for a trial into how effective nebulized hypertonic saline could be in helping patients with bronchiectasis.

For the Bronch UK study, we aim to ask about 100 to 150 UCLH patients with bronchiectasis who are seen in Professor Brown’s clinics to take part. Patients who agree to take part need to fill in a couple of health questionnaires, donate a blood and sputum sample, and give permission for the details of their condition to be used by the researchers. There will be a repeat assessment of each volunteer participant in three years time, as that will allow us to identify what factors influence how patients fare over time.

So far at UCLH, we have recruited nearly 40 patients, and our very keen research nurse Joel Solis will be actively recruiting more patients for the study at the Friday morning clinics over the next few months. He will usually send a letter to selected patients a few days before they are coming to clinic to ask whether they would like to be involved, and then talk to each patient in depth at the clinic itself. Patients are selected randomly, and we would like to recruit about a third of patients coming to Professor Brown’s for the study. We hope to avoid volunteers for the Bronch UK study having to come back to the hospital outside of their appointment days by collecting the data and samples we need on the same day as the hospital appointment.

We are very grateful for the patients who have agreed to take part in the Bronch UK study so far – almost everyone asked to take part has so far said yes, and it is very gratifying to have such a positive response.

Bronch UK is an important study – it shows that the research funding bodes recognize that bronchiectasis is an important disease that needs further research, and the results from the study itself will tell us a lot about bronchiectasis that we did not know and will stimulate more research into bronchiectasis. This should all lead to better ways of treating patients and thereby reduce the problems this disease causes.

There are two ways of funding your challenge; minimum sponsorship (option A) or self-funding (option B).

Option A – Raising a Minimum Sponsorship

You pay the Registration Fee to Global Adventure Challenges and then raise the minimum sponsorship for Breathing Matters. You can set up a Justgiving Page from our home page (https://www.justgiving.com/breathingmatters)

You send 80% of the minimum sponsorship and pledges for the remaining 20% to Breathing Matters at least 11 weeks prior to the departure date of the Challenge.

Breathing Matters will be invoiced by Global for the balance of the Challenge 10 weeks prior to departure.

All outstanding sponsorship should be sent to us within six weeks of completing the Challenge. We would be grateful if you could try and raise as much as you can over the minimum sponsorship target as every penny of this is what Breathing Matters will receive. The more you raise, the more research work we can do and the more your challenge will have been worthwhile.

Option B – Self-Funding Option

You send the Registration Form to Global Adventure Challenges, together with the Registration Fee.

Eleven weeks prior to departure, an invoice will be sent to you for the cost of the Challenge.

Although there is no minimum sponsorship target for this option, we would encourage you to raise as much as possible for Breathing Matters (via https://www.justgiving.com/breathingmatters). Once again, the more you raise, the more research work we can do and the more your challenge will have been worthwhile.

Jeremy Cole conducted another fabulous evening’s concert last Friday at the beautiful St Paul’s Church, in the middle of Covent Garden. The Holst Singers were again on excellent form, mesmerising the ample audience who joined in with much loved Christmas Carols.

We were fortunate to be joined by the illustrious John Sergeant and Nigel Rees who read fabulously funny readings, chosen by themselves.

A massive thank you to Jane Walker who tirelessly organised the concert for Breathing Matters, and thanks to every volunteer that helped out as well as Sainsbury’s Warren Street who sponsored the event.

All profits raised from this concert go towards Professor Brown’s research into bronchiectasis at UCL Respiratory.

This Christmas Celebration started off the Christmas Season in the best way possible.